Road-grader.



Patented July 18, 1916.

2 SHEETS-SHILET 1 I N VEN TOR.

. mflees'e WITNESSES:

E. M. REE$E1 ROAD GRADER.

APPLICATION FILED Aus.22. 1914.

Patented July 18, 1916.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2 INVENTOR.

Reese WITNESSES.-

ATT RNEY.

1n: Nonms rzrsns co. PHOTO-LYYHD-. WASHING mu. 0. c.

EDWIN M. REESE, 0F YORBA LINDA, CALIFORNIAV ROAD-GRADER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 18, 1916.

Application filed August 22, 1914. Serial No. 857,992.

that it may be drawn by one or two horses,

and designed to be completely reversible, performing its functions equally well in either direction of travel.

It is a further object of my invention to provide a road grader particularly adapted to work upon the upper or hill side of a road,

breaking the crust of the ground so that itv may be later removed by a scraper or shovel.

Another object of the invention is to pro-1 vide a. grader that'will serve to break the ground closely adjacent to a bank orwall, thus making the grader particularly adapted for use in hilly or mountainous countries where roads frequently traverse hill sides, and it is necessary to grade close to a bank at one side of the road.

Still another feature of my road grader is the mounting of the earth breaking member in such a manner that it may yield when a rock or other rigid'obstacle is encountered, passing over such an obstacle without being broken. V

A further object is to provide a road grader that may be laterally tilted to any desired angle by vertical adjustment of the transporting wheels.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a device of the character described, that will be strong, durable, simple and efficient and comparatively easy to construct, also one in which the several parts will not be likely to get out of working order.

\Vith these and various other objects in view, the invention has relation to certain novel features'of the construction and operation, an example of which is described in the following specification and illustrated in the accompanying drawing, wherein:

Figure 1 is a plan view of my road grader, its intended directionof travel being indicated by an arrow. Fig. 2 is a view of the same in side elevation. Fig. 3 is an end view of the road grader, the end shown being at the front of the grader when the earth breaking member occupies the position shown. Fig, l'is a detail vertical sectional view of the earth breaking member, the section being taken upon theline m:r of Fig. 1. Fig.5 is another detail sectional view of said member taken in this instance upon the line y-y of Fig. 8. Fig. 6 is a detail vertical sectional view showing the adjustable mounting of the transporting wheels, the section being taken upon the line z-2 of Fig. 1.

Referring now-more particularly to the dr wings, wherein like reference characters designate similar parts in all of the figures, the numerals 1 and 2 respectively denote the sides and ends of a normally rectangular frame, said members being connected by hinges secured to their interior faces as indicated at 3. The hinges 3 are constructed to permit of only a partial distortion of the frame from its normal rectangular outline. Adjacent to the extremities of each member 1 a bracket 4 is surmounted thereupon, to pivotally receive the upper end of an elongated pintle 5, the lower end of which is mounted in a bracket 6 exteriorly secured to the member 1 adjacent to its lower edge. The extremitiesof the pintle 5 are passed through lugs 7 which project integrally from the vertical sleeve 8 of rectangular form. In each sleeve 8 a rectangular standard 9- isslidably mounted, having its lower endprojecting some distance beneath the sleeve 8 and formed with a laterally projecting stub axle 10, upon which a transporting wheel 11 is retained by a pin 11?.

Each standard 9 has a'rack of teeth 12 formed upon one of its vertical faces, and said rack is engaged by a pinion 13 fast upon a short shaft 13 j ournaled in lugs 14E projecting from the sleeve 8. Upon the outer end of each shaft B' -there is mounted a crank 15 whereby said shaft may be manually subjected to rotation. Inorderthat said shaft may be locked against rotation in any position, a dog 16 is engaged with a small pinion 17 fast'upon the other-end of the shaft. r

The two right hand wheels and left handwheels respectively form pairs, and the wheels of each pair may be simultaneously swung at an angle with the direction of travel by a mechanism which will now be described. Aconnection isestablished between each of the wheels comprising said pairs by an elongated horizontal bar 18, to the extremities of which there are secured brackets 19, each having pivotal connection through a pin 20 with a tongue 21 projecting from the outer end of the stub axle 10. To one end portion of each bar 18 there is rigidly secured a bracket 21, which has loose connection with an elongated rod 22 forming an acute angle with said bar. The other extremity of the rod 22 has pivotal connection with the lower end of a normally vertical lever 23, pivoted at some distance from its lower end upon a bracket 2st formed with an arcuate rack of teeth. In order to hold said lever adjusted in various positions 'of angular displacement, the usual spring pressed plunger is mounted upon the lever to engage theteeth of said arcuate rack. In order that the rods 22 may be adjustable, it is preferred to interpose in each of said rods a turn-buckle 25.

A description will now be given of the earth breaking member with the means for supporting and adjusting the same. Upon the exterior face of each wall, midway between the extremities thereof, there is mounted fast a bracket 26, which projects laterally at its upper and lower ends as indicated at 26. The projections 26 are formed with threaded apertures each pair of which receives a vertical adjusting screw 27 having a hand wheel 28 mounted fast upon its upper end. The lower extremities of the screws 27 are respectively attached by ball and socket joints 29 to the extremities of a rectangular plate 30, transversely extended beneath the members 1 and projecting some distance at each side thereof. To the front and rear edges of the plate 30, there are respectively rigidly secured elongated bracket members 30 from each of which a row of sharp pointed teeth 31 project downwardly. From the center of the plate 30 a post 32 projects rigidly upward, its lower end being engaged by a bracket 32 secured to the plate 30. To reinforce the connection established between the parts 30 and 32, an arched metal plate 33 is centrally surmounted upon'the' plate and is apertured at its center to give passage to the post 32. At its upper end the post 32 is bent to form an arm 32 extending toward one of the ends of the grader, said arm being hooked at its extremity adapting it to support a weight 33 V The structural features of my invention having been now fully described, an explanation as to the operation of my mechanism will now be given. By means of the adjusting screws 27, the earth breaking member comprised by the parts 30, 80*, and 31 may be raised or lowered to any de sired working position, and. said member may be inclined toward either side of the machine at any desired angle, this angle usually being such as to give the road the necessary transverse pitch to secure adequate drainage. In the working position of the earth breaking member, the plate 30 is always tilted upwardly to a slight extent in the direction of travel, so that while one row of the teeth 31 are breaking ground, the teeth of the other row are spaced slightly above the ground. The function of the weight 33 is to maintain the earth breaking member tilted in its working position, and when the direction of travel of the grader is changed, the post 32 is disengaged from the bracket 32 and is turned through 180 degrees, and again brought into engagement with said bracket. Thus the wei ht 33 lies always to the rear of the earth breaking member, whatever may be the direction of travel. If during use of my road grader, the teeth 31 encounter an unyield in g rock, embedded in the road bed, the earth turning member will tilt upwardly at its rear end until the teeth 31 may clear the obstacle, and subsequently said member will be returned to its normal position by the said weight.

Then my grader is being used on level ground and is not required to work close to any vertical obstructions such as a fence or bluff, all four wheels will be allowed to remain in contact with the ground, and the only adjustment necessary will be that of the screws 27 whereby the earth breaking member is raised or lowered. Then the grader is working closely adjacent to a bank or fence, it is preferred to elevate both of the wheels adjacent to the bank or fence, so that the full weight of the machine rests upon the earth breaking tool in conjunction with the two outer wheels. By thus elevating the inside wheels, it is made possible to give the earth breaking member a downward inclination toward the bank or fence, and the weight of the machine will furnish the necessary pressure to force the teeth 31 into the ground. l/Vhen used in this manner, the outer wheels of the grader will resist any tendency of the machine to slide outwardly from the bluff or fence, and said wheels in conjunction with the correlated steering mechanism comprised by the rod 22 and lever 23 will enable the operator to guide the grader arcuately along the elevation bordering one edge of the road.

It is apparent that each wheel is separately vertically adjustable, by manually applying rotation to the crank 15, and thereby forcing the standard 9 up or down through the engagement of the pinion 14 with the rack 12.

The hinge connection between the sides and ends of the frame of my grader constitutes a further safeguard against injury to the earth breaking member when an obstacle is encountered by said member since a heavy resistance offered to the progress of the earth breaking member will spend itself to a considerable extent in distorting the frame from its normal rectangular shape.

It will be observed that to each extremity of each side member of the frame there is secured a downwardly projecting skid or runner 84, which skid will support the weight of the correlated sides of the grader when the wheels at said sides are sufficiently elevated.

The invention is presented as including all such modifications and changes as properly come within the scope of the following claims.

hat I claim is:

1. A road grader comprising a wheeled frame, an earth breaking member extended transversely beneath said frame, a mechanism correlated with each end of said member to adjust said end vertically, and a weight acting upon said member tending to tilt the same about an axis transverse of the frame.

2. A road grader comprising a wheeled frame, an earth breaking member extended transversely beneath said frame, and free to tilt about an axis transverse of the frame, a weight acting upon said member tending to maintain it in a tilted position, a mechanism correlated with each end of said member to adjust said end vertically, and means for individually adjusting the wheels of the frame vertically.

3. A road grader comprising a wheeled frame, an earth breaking member extended transversely beneath said frame, and free Copies stantially parallel to the direction of travel,

and a weight suspended from the free end of said arm tending to maintain the earth breaking member tilted.

4. A road grader comprising a frame formed of side members and end members having hinged connection, an earth breaking member transversely extended beneath the center portion of said frame, and formed with rows of teeth respectively adjacent to its front and rear edges, vertical adjusting screws respectively secured to the side members of the frame above the end of the earth breaking member, means for manually communicating rotation to each adjusting screw, a ball and socket connection between the lower end of each adjusting screw and the corresponding end of the earth breaking member, manually operated means for vertically adjusting each transporting wheel, and means for simultaneously swinging the two wheels at each side of the grader about vertical axes.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

' EDWIN M. REESE.

Witnesses:

T. A. HALL,

JOHN AHEARN.

of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the fflommissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. G. 

